The present invention relates to a card connector assembly, and more specifically, to a board-attached type card connector assembly attached to a board.
A conventional board-attached type card connector assembly has numerous contacts that are directly soldered to a board and disposed in an insulating housing. The insulating housing accommodates a card (memory card). The card is ground to the board via spring fingers that contact the metal surfaces (frame ground) on the side surfaces and attachment brackets that are connected to the spring fingers. The ground frame discharges any charge accumulating on the card, so that the integrated circuits (IC) in the card are protected from static electricity. One embodiment of this type of assembly is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,247. A second type of assembly is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. H8-241764. The second assembly has signal grounds located in the vicinity of the front end of the card that contact a ground plate. The ground plate is connected to the board via a flexible wiring board and relay connector. The signal contacts are similarly connected to the board via the flexible wiring board and a relay connector that is connected to the wiring board.
A board mount card connector assembly requires a plurality of different attachment heights for a card connector assembly depending on the desired application. Because the parts in which the spring fingers and attachment brackets are connected cannot handle a plurality of types of card connectors with different heights, a plurality of different types of card connector assemblies and molds must be prepared according to the attachment height. Although variations in height can be handled more easily by the flexible circuit board, the number of parts required is still extensive, thereby increasing manufacturing costs.
It is therefore desirable to develop an inexpensive board mount card connector assembly that can accommodate various attachment heights of the board mount card connector assembly to the board.
This invention relates to a board mount card connector assembly having an insulating housing that accommodates a card attached to a board. Signal contacts are attached to the insulating housing and are connected to the card that is inserted into the insulating housing. A ground plate is ground-connected with the card. The contacts and the ground plate are connected to the board. Intermediate contacts are disposed in the insulating housing and have dimensions corresponding to the attachment height at which the insulating housing is attached to the board. One end of each of the intermediate contacts is ground-connected to the board. The ground plate is ground-connected to the board via the intermediate contacts.